Bengals confirm their interest in hosting the NFL draft

The Cincinnati Enquirer recently reported that the team and the Cincinnati Regional Sports Commission were engaged in talks with the NFL about the 2029 draft. Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn confirmed the team’s interest in an interview with select local beat writers on Monday.

“We’ve expressed interest, as have many other cities,” Blackburn said, via Kelsey Conway of The Enquirer. “We are exploring it and seeing whether we can have an opportunity to do that. We would love it if we could. We would be excited about it. We’ll continue to work on it to see if it can happen.”

There is no timeline for a decision.

The 2027 NFL draft will be held in D.C., and the league recently awarded the 2028 NFL draft to Minneapolis.

The NFL left New York after the 2014 draft, and since then, Chicago (twice), Philadelphia, Arlington, Nashville, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Detroit, Green Bay and Pittsburgh have hosted the draft. The 2020 draft was virtual.